Browsing: Canada

At the draw ceremony held in Auckland/Tâmaki Makaurau on Saturday, it emerged that Nigeria will play Canada in her first match of the competition to be staged in a total of nine cities (five in Australia and four in New Zealand), and which will boast 32 teams – the biggest in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup since it began in China in 1991.

Two second goals by Jessie Fleming (50th minute) and Vanessa Gilles (72nd minute) earned the world’s sixth-ranked team victory over the African champions in their first encounter in Vancouver on Friday (Saturday morning in Nigeria). However, Coach Randy Waldrum prosecuted that game with only 14 outfield players, most of whom arrived on the eve of the match due to late issuance of visa from their respective bases.